I spent quite a few years crabbing and still go out occasionally. I'll be going out for this fall season and everytime I talk to someone from outside AK its all everyone wants to talk about. Its interesting from a standpoint of "been there done that alot" and its just a part of life up here.

It's a cool show. I think a lot of us that aren't in that environment see it as an exciting profession that we didn't know much about and are surprised by the amounts of cash the guys make in such short amounts of time. I think there is a "fight club" sort of effect too, where many of us feel too constrained by a dull, PC world. It's good to see some tough as nails guys take on an unforgiving environment pranking each other the whole way through.

They may oversaturate the airwaves with it, though, with all the replays and "after the catch" specials.

Survivor Man is a stupid wuss compared to Bear. Both tend to showboat but then that is the nature of the shows.

In the Okeefenokee Swamp episode he states, "I have to be careful around here because there are alligators, snakes and aggressive snapping turtles."

I nearly died laughing. I've done a lot of what those guys do for my job so I can relate and I know when they are laying it on thick.

I like Deadliest Catch but I'm pretty much through with it at this point having watched at least two season's worth.

I can actually empathize with that job having been a fisheries biologist in the Grand Canyon. Working in freezing cold water in rapids in the winter PALES in comparison to what the crabbers deal with, but the discomforts, the extreme fatigue and the drama of dealing with a cranky bunch of misfits is all pretty similar in many respects.

Canyon boatmen are a lot like crabbers in that they are fiercely independent but at the same time, probably wouldn't or even couldn't do any other job. Just as Alaskans and crabbers refer to the "lower 48", boatmen talk about the real world as "Rim World" (because it all above the rim of the canyon).

What boat are you going out on Bering? I actually met Capt Phil and one of his sons down in Cabo about 9-10 years ago. He was drunk, we were drunk but his son mentioned being on the old "World's Most Dangerous Job" show. Seemed like pretty cool guys.

I'll be going out on the Kustatan. Its a boat from my home town. One of the things I don't care for much is the fact that only one boat in the show is from AK and only a few of the crew and captains live in AK. I was having a few beers with Neal from the Time Bandit a day or so ago and he said its not a good deal for those guys they have not seen any money other than the $ they give to the boats for fuel. Lots of exposure but nothing else. The show gets it right most of the time some of the drama is a little overboard but the extreme nature of it is pretty right on. There is no set all yiou have to do is capture what mother nature provides. One thing i get a kick out of is the hand coiling thing. When I started crabbing there were no coilers we would pull 25 pot strings and than switch off, coiling by hand is easy when you do it alot. I took a few years off to do some other stuff but it gets in your blood, thank god for super cissus!

I used to pull 300' trammels so I can vaguely relate. I can't imagine how bad your hands hurt with all that coiling...especially when they're numb.

You can tell some of the guys lay it on a little thick in front of the cameras, lol.

I'd do King crab season..maybe..but that Opelio business is out of the question. Me no like the combo of extreme cold coupled with extreme fatigue. When coffee does absolutely nothing it starts to get inhumane, lol.

At least there is a good financial incentive for you crabbers. Fish techs are lucky to get paid $15 and hour.

Halibut is worth more than crab these days, I just dug a few pics out from a few years ago, I 'll put them up after i get them scanned. The weather sure does get nasty during opies, after a few years crabbing I jumped on a tug based out of Dutch and I think that was worse, it was only 80 feet with a 200 foot fuel barge we would run from Dutch to the Pribilofs to bring them fuel oil, it was always nasty no one else was usually out and it was always a hurry up kinda thing, my wife came out and spent our first christmas together anchored on the backside of St. Paul island waiting out a storm, on the way back to Dutch it started blowing over 100 with 50 ft seas, quite the experience for her for sure. We are in the preliminary phase of an adventure tour program for people to actually go out and pull pots.

gonna flip this over to a thread showcasing the supps that I am going to be running during my upcoming halibut and red king crab season. they will include USP labs, Omega and Athletic edge. Stay tuned, you'll no where to tune in.